From Paris With Love Movie Review

MOVIE REVIEW: FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

2/4/10

SYNOPSIS: A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All James wants is to become a bona fide agent and see some real action. So when he’s offered his first senior-level assignment, he can’t believe his good luck – until he meets his new partner, special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta).

REVIEW: “Wax on, Wax off” baby! Whew, what a ride! This is one of those movies that are fun just for the sake of having fun. This is most evident in John Travolta’s performance. You can tell that he was just let loose and he was having a lot of fun with this off beat character. Charlie Wax (Travolta) is a super skilled, bullet dodging, Jason Bourne type operative who barely takes himself or his work seriously but has all the talent to make up for it. He is a loose cannon that gets the job done one way or another regardless of the consequences other than his survival. His tactics include no messing around and getting straight to the point. He gets teamed up with James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who is a complete opposite. This intellectual, well-educated, cross every “t” and dot every “i” office worker is eagerly aspiring to become a field operative himself and he runs into a crash course courtesy of his new partner, Wax. He will learn his lessons quick and the hard way. The casting for this flick was pretty good. I had my doubts when I first heard of this movie but I’ve been corrected. Meyers fits the bill nicely and no one can play controlled crazy like Travolta.

This is what I like to call a kick ass movie. It’s all about the action and the cast and in this case, they are both good. Don’t be expecting too much in terms of a story which is somewhat predictable too. But with the name Luc Besson all over this production you know you can expect quality work and it is. One thing that stood out about this movie is the humor in it. Travolta is a riot! I haven’t laughed this hard in an action movie of this type in a long time. It was an interesting mix. The script for the movie was a major contributor to these unexpected comedy moments and of course Mr. Travolta is a master of line delivery. The action was awesome with great gun play and well choreographed car chase sequences. Chasing through the streets of Paris doesn’t hurt either. There are certain filming locations that cinematically give you a step in the right direction by default. For example, cities such as New York or L.A. or in this case Paris add a little extra sparkle to the big screen. Priscilla would have really enjoyed the Parisian scenes in this picture like having breakfast at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Pierre Morel has been primarily a cinematographer for most of his cinematic career. With this only his third major motion picture direction, one of them being the big hit Taken, I’d say he has a very promising future. If you want to see a movie to just have fun watching it, this is the choice for you.